History YMMV / TheDefenders2017

** Pushes into InformedWrongness territory when Luke lambasts Danny for attacking a bunch of criminals without considering exactly why they might be criminals and whether they really deserve a beating. Luke spent the entire first season of his own show and much of the second season doing exactly that himself, implying that [[PositiveDiscrimination it's okay when he does it but not the "privileged white boy"]].

** Similarly, anytime Alexandra out-of-nowhere reminisces about any of her previous lives, such as referring Istanbul with its historical name Constantinople. It comes off as pretentious because all we see of her is a normal-looking woman living in the 21st century since the show doesn't bother to show any flashback of her lives.

* BrokenBase: The fact that it's an InNameOnly adaptation, lacking any of the signature Defenders from the comics, like the Comicbook/IncredibleHulk, [[Comicbook/SubMariner Namor]], Comicbook/DoctorStrange or the Comicbook/SilverSurfer. Those who dislike the change view it as disrespectful to the source material and argue that Marvel could've chosen any other name, especially since the show's premise is ''very'' similar to that of ''Marvel Knights'', a short-lived team book from TheNineties about a group of street-level superheroes. Those who don't mind the change argue that the name is much less awkward than "Marvel Knights," and that the name hadn't been getting much use anyway, since pretty much all of Marvel's attempts to revive the Defenders in the comics have ended up being cancelled, including a Defenders comic with this show's lineup.

* ContinuityLockout:
** ''Daredevil'' season 2 and ''Iron Fist'' season 1 are basically required viewing for watching ''The Defenders'', seeing as elements of the Hand that were established in both shows. One does not need to have watched ''Jessica Jones'' or ''Luke Cage'', although the latter does provide some background as to what put Luke in prison.
** Actively [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] with Claire Temple. It was initially expected that she would be the person to bring the team together, given that she was the only person to appear on all four shows and meet them all, but the miniseries seems to go out of its way to downplay her history with them in case viewers hadn't seen the previous shows. There's no mention of her ever having met Jessica before, and her romantic history with Matt is left vague to the point of being subtext. In the end, she only formally introduces Luke and Danny (who'd already met and fought), and all the other members of the team meet organically without her.

* MagnificentBitch: Madame Gao is a leader of [[Characters/MCUTheHand The Hand]] who works with [[ComicBook/TheKingpin Wilson Fisk]], first coming into conflict with [[Characters/MCUDefendersAndAllies the Defenders]] through her heroin trade in New York City. A manipulator extraordinaire, Gao operates by gaining leverage on powerful figures, having [[Series/IronFist2017 deeply ingrained herself into Danny Rand's family company]] and uses it as a front for her drug trade. A charismatic leader, Gao's followers have unwavering loyalty to her, her drug factory workers having willingly blinded themselves as a sign of faith in her. Ever calm in the face of her enemies, Gao manipulates Danny and his friends when they capture her, manipulating them into doubting each other and mocks them by pretending to be under the effects of their truth serum.

* WinTheCrowd: The announcement of Creator/SigourneyWeaver as the BigBad. First Creator/JephLoeb got the crowd worked up just by revealing it would be a woman, then everyone completely lost it as her name was announced and she walked out, before going into a chant of "HO-LY SHIT! HO-LY SHIT!" with the Defenders themselves joining in.

* MagnificentBitch: Madame Gao is a leader of [[Characters/MCUTheHand The Hand]] who works with [[ComicBook/TheKingpin Wilson Fisk]], first coming into conflict with [[Characters/MCUDefenders the Defenders]] through her heroin trade in New York City. A manipulator extraordinaire, Gao operates by gaining leverage on powerful figures, having [[Series/IronFist2017 deeply ingrained herself into Danny Rand's family company]] and uses it as a front for her drug trade. A charismatic leader, Gao's followers have unwavering loyalty to her, her drug factory workers having willingly blinded themselves as a sign of faith in her. Ever calm in the face of her enemies, Gao manipulates Danny and his friends when they capture her, manipulating them into doubting each other and mocks them by pretending to be under the effects of their truth serum.

* ContinuityLockout: ''Daredevil'' season 2 and ''Iron Fist'' season 1 are basically required viewing for watching ''The Defenders'', seeing as elements of the Hand that were established in both shows. One does not need to have watched ''Jessica Jones'' or ''Luke Cage'', although the latter does provide some background as to what put Luke in prison.

** There has been a lot of mileage of how in Stick's quote, "You think the four of you can save New York? You can't even save yourselves," [[{{Mondegreen}} "save" sounds like "shave."]]

** People are once more referring to Elektra Natchios as [[{{Mondegreen}} "Electric Nachos"]], thanks to Élodie Yung's pronunciation of her character's name.

* BrokenBase: The fact that it's an InNameOnly adaptation, lacking any of the signature Defenders from the comics, like the Comicbook/IncredibleHulk, [[Comicbook/SubMariner Namor]], Comicbook/DoctorStrange or the Comicbook/SilverSurfer. Those who dislike the change view it as disrespectful to the source material and argue that Marvel could've chosen any other name, especially since the show's premise is ''very'' similar to that of ''Marvel Knights'', a short-lived team book from TheNineties about a group of street-level superheroes. Those who don't mind the change argue that the name is much less awkward than "Marvel Knights," and that the name hadn't been getting much use anyway, since pretty much all of Marvel's attempts to revive the Defenders in the comics have ended up being cancelled.

* UnexpectedCharacter: Who would have thought that Jessica Jones would hire [[spoiler:SelfDemonstrating/{{Deadpool}}]] for help?

** The Defenders absence in ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' has led a popular fanfic topic to be what if they did participate in the Battle of Earth or what they were up to during this time.

*** Karen Page is a particularly notable case. Season 2 of ''Daredevil'' ended with Matt finally telling her his secret, which clearly is supposed to mean a lot as far as Matt and Karen's relationship goes because it's the first time we've seen Matt willingly confess his secret identity to someone.[[note]]Foggy and Claire found out by circumstances, Father Lantom and Elektra figured it out on their own[[/note]] Yet in ''The Defenders'', the impact of the reveal conversation on their relationship is relegated to being mentioned in passing. Interviews show that even Charlie Cox and Deborah Ann Woll were disappointed that the reveal's impact on Matt and Karen's relationship was pushed to the side in ''The Defenders'', with many viewers now hoping that ''Daredevil'' season 3 will backtrack a bit to fill in the gaps.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Nirvana's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grOAHaIODfM "Come as You Are"]] is used again for the full trailer and it fits the theme of the heroes having to come together but not wanting to quite nicely.

** When your villains can’t produce much of a threat beyond an relatively tame earthquake and killing a few dozen people, and repeatedly lose fights with the heroes in a miniseries where said heroes come together to stop them there isn’t really any justification for their threat.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Nirvana's "Come As You Are" is used again for the full trailer and it fits the theme of the heroes having to come together but not wanting to quite nicely.

%%** Danny Rand is still one, though not to the same extent as ''Iron Fist'' season 1 had been.

* [[AcceptableTargets Acceptable Targets - The Wealthy]]: All the Defenders join in on ribbing Danny for his privileged naivete. Luke specifically calls out Danny for attacking Cole as a "rich white man beating up a poor black kid".

* AntiClimaxBoss: Alexandra is [[spoiler:unceremoniously KilledMidSentence by Elektra in Episode 6, without even making it to the FinalBattle with the Defenders]].

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: After a stumble in overall quality with the first season of ''Series/IronFist'', ''The Defenders'' -- which serves as an immediate follow-up to the show -- managed to get things back on track with critical and audience reception. With this in mind, there's still quite a bit of debate on how good exactly the miniseries is - reaction varying from a small minority thinking it was underwhelming, a good number of people feeling it's SoOkayItsAverage, to another large group of people thinking it was great -- it's just that everyone agrees that it's an improvement over ''Iron Fist''.

** After many complaints that the portrayals of the Hand in ''Series/{{Daredevil}}'' and ''Series/IronFist'' didn't fit well together and were just confusing, at long last this show gives us a singular depiction of them that fits reasonably well with everything seen beforehand. Justified in that the show was written around the same time as ''Iron Fist'' was going into production, so it's highly likely they always meant to gradually reveal the Hand and explain what they were over the course of the various shows.

* EarWorm: The Comic Con teaser and first trailer had a remix of Music/{{Nirvana}}'s "Come As You Are" playing over it.

* ToughActToFollow: Marvel Comics published at the time a comic book based on the team from the TV series, completely unrelated to the classic team of Defenders. It was made by Creator/BrianMichaelBendis, and it was not based on the conflict with the Hand, but in a mafia war: Wilson Fisk ceases to be the Kingpin, and many criminals seek to fill the void. His work was hugely praised. Bendis has left Marvel and will start working for DC Comics, but with the TV series renewed for a second season, it's clear that the comic book will continue. Whoever replaces Bendis at the helm will have some very big shoes to fill.

** If [[spoiler:Elektra]] doesn't cross it when murdering [[spoiler:Stick]], [[spoiler:she]] definitely does by deciding to carry on the original plan of [[spoiler:removing the dragon bones, as it'd sunk a large portion of New York.]]

* AlwaysSecondBest: The fandom typically considers them the minor leagues compared to the Avengers.

* NarmCharm: The final fight being set to one of [[Music/WuTangClan Wu-Tang's]] classic tracks, given the rap group's focus on martial arts and ninja tropes, as well as [[TheKnightsWhoSaySquee Luke Cage meeting Method Man in-universe]].

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Danny Rand has been the least popular Defender, but some fans have remarked that his fight choreography is better, and he seems much more likable, no doubt due to the show also being helmed by different showrunners (in addition, Season Two of his show is confirmed to have a new showrunner, giving hope for further improvement). Many had been hoping since the release of his show that he'd work better as part of a team than having to carry his own story. It also helps tremendously that he gets better fight choreography (which Creator/FinnJones also had more than ''ten minutes'' to practice). He gets his share of TakeThatScrappy moments, but has more consistent characterization, much better action scenes, a more defined purpose, and [[ThoseTwoGuys great banter with Luke Cage]].

** Danny Rand gets called a thundering dumbass by Stick, and three moments in particular establish why:
*** [[spoiler:After Danny discovers the New York headquarters of the Hand, he decides to march right into the middle of their stronghold and loudly declare that he's the Immortal Iron Fist and will take them all down. Challenging an entire ninja army on his own goes exactly as well as you'd expect, and it's only the other Defenders coincidentally showing up that Danny from being captured right there.]]
*** [[spoiler:After fleeing the Hand and hiding in a Chinese restaurant trying to keep their presence a secret, the Defenders are found by an injured Stick who explains that he found them because Danny tried to call Colleen, and while luckily he (Stick) was with Colleen at the time, he still smashes Danny's phone and reminds him that the Hand can trace his calls.]] Oddly enough, even when this is pointed out, the Defenders still stay there instead of escaping to a different location before the Hand could get there.
*** [[spoiler:Once Danny's kidnapped and taken beneath Midland Circle, Elektra outright tells him that the Iron Fist is needed to open the barrier. What's the one thing he shouldn't do while fighting her there? Activate the Iron Fist. Which he does. He especially shouldn't use the Iron Fist when Elektra is standing right in the front of the barrier. He does. This leads to Elektra bullfighting him into punching the barrier with the Iron Fist.]]
** Not that Matt, Jessica and Luke are completely spotless, mind you. [[spoiler:Stick and the others decide that if Danny were out with them he would be easier to kidnap, so they knock him out and tie him up. Which naturally just leads to Elektra capturing him without Danny being able to defend himself, and also results in Stick getting killed. Even if Danny had just cooperated and stayed behind willingly, it's unlikely that he could have stopped Elektra from capturing him if he fought her alone. Aside from that, they all knew at that point that the Hand had a habit of popping up when least expected. They should have realized that Elektra could very likely find them and try to capture Danny, which is precisely what happened. They didn't need both Jessica and Matt to interview the architect's daughter, so if, say, Jessica stayed behind with Luke, Danny, and Stick, while Matt grabbed Karen from the precinct to go interview the Raymonds, they would have stood a better chance.]]
** Then again, they never would felt the need to tie Danny up if he had not attacked them. Also, they probably would have been able to protect him if Stick hadn't drugged Luke in an attempt to kill Danny.
** The cleaners in episode 2 are all carrying around a tank full of powerful [[HollywoodAcid acid]] and a spray hose that [[spoiler:they are using to dissolve the dead warriors of The Chaste]] so when Danny and Colleen attack they all set the tanks down and attack them with their fists rather then going for the obvious and spraying them.

* MagnificentBitch: Madame Gao is one of the mysterious leaders of [[Characters/MCUTheHand The Hand]]. Introduced as a crime lord working with [[ComicBook/TheKingpin Wilson Fisk]], she first comes into conflict with the heroes of New York through her heroin trade. To make her operations succeed she takes control of people with great power and utilizes their resources for her own ends. Danny Rand discovers she has deeply ingrained her people within his company and is using it as a front for her drug trade. Gao is shown to be exceptionally skilled at controlling people. She tempts a person by targeting their greed, and once she has a hold of them she continues to control them using fear, as seen with Harold Meachum. She also distills unwavering loyalty in her followers who will give up their lives to do her bidding. Her heroin factory workers are revealed to have all been blinded voluntarily as a sign of their faith towards her. Her influence can even be felt in those those she does not directly control, as Danny spends a large portion of the season feeling utterly powerless against her. She also displays an unflinching will, as even when things go south for her she never breaks character from her usual calm disposition. When she gets held captive by Danny and his friends, she is able to plant doubt in each of them with a BreakingSpeech, as well as feigning she's under the effects of truth serum before revealing she was immune and was actually messing with them.